Do you still remember the time when you played "Cooking Run" on Symbian more than ten years ago with the pixel quality? At that time, the screen was only 2.4 inches, and the touch screen was still a resistive screen. But in order to serve food to virtual customers, I could lie in bed and play for two or three hours. Later, smart phones became popular, and this kind of click-cooking games also changed one after another. To be honest, many new games nowadays look beautiful, but they always lack the pure joy of the original games.
"Small Town Chef" is one of the few works in the past few years that has made me feel like I did back then. It's not bragging, it's still the old-school simulation business at its core – customers line up, cook, upgrade, and unlock new restaurants. But the developers have paid great attention to the details. For example, the recipes from different countries really make people want to check out the authentic recipes. Although the animation of the bread coming out of the oven is simple, it has a strange healing feeling when combined with the sound effects. 😄
What impressed me most was the "Street Food" level. When making pancakes and fruit, you have to quickly turn the batter over evenly, otherwise you have to start over. Just this simple QTE operation suddenly reminded me of the tension I felt when timing steaks when I played "Beauty Restaurant". Ten years later, the core of happiness in some games has not changed—that is, the satisfaction of finally letting go of the hanging heart after completing the task within a limited time.
Nowadays, the game market is full of various krypton gold card drawings and daily tasks, but "Town Chef" still maintains a pure buyout experience (although a small amount of in-app purchases are now added, it does not affect the level at all). If you have also experienced those classic business simulation games from the Saipan era, you might as well download and try them again this weekend. It may not give you a stunning visual impact, but it will definitely remind you of yourself in those days who was so happy for a bite of virtual food. 🍳
By the way, during the Spring Festival, I saw that the developer had launched a new restaurant "Lantern Street". It is said that there is also a mini game of dumpling making. Although I haven't played it yet because of my busy work, I am looking forward to it just hearing about this theme. I wonder if any of you have unlocked it and can you share your experience? 😊